Role Play Challenge: Happy Hatty

[madscientist]

And remember, settle great artists rather than culture bombing (except at the very end of the game)

Yes, this is running through my mind as I played yesterday. "Mad, Music get's you a free Great Artist, SETTLE" Yep, settle those magnificant Artists snuggly against Will's borders.

 

[I-imp]

Does the sci. slider go down when you reasearch all three techs, or just one?

 

[Kev]

If you get both Drama and Music quickly, you run the risk of falling victim to your own rules. If one AI offers you Literature in a trade (which you must take), it means a quick end to your research according to the rules.

Is there a way to get Music without Literature? Not up on my tree. If so perhaps music right away since it gets you the Great Artist and lets you go after Sistine and hold off on the others - though having Drama for earlier Theaters is going to be key as well. Of course, a Literature delay means no National or Heroic Epic for a while too. Sigh, tough call.

What sort of wonders are you after besides Sistine? Might be beneficial to hit aesthetics quickly and see if you can get the Parthenon and the Statue of Zeus (quicker with ivory which you seem to be getting). Is there no hope to get the Pyramids at this stage?

Upon Edit: OK, you can get to Music with Math and Literature OR Drama. If you want to delay Lit, you can go through Aesthetics to get Drama and then Music (with Math). Still makes it tough if Lit shows up in a trade, but likely a necessary evil.

 

[Sian]

since its only the science slider which is going down wouldn't you then be able to keep a decent bpt, with scienists only?

 

[I-imp]

Spoiler :

Well, my game didn't go so well. First I started off hooking up basic resources. founded Memphis in the same location as mad. Did an advanced rex towards willem which dropped him to cautious. Oracled CoL and grabbed 'mids., then probably did the worst thing possible and converted. (It seemed like a good idea. Shaka was Confuscian.) Founded two more cities and blocked willem off from the east. Barb cities spawned south and east of me, which Shaka took. Then he settled right on the border. Then willem Dow'd and fought off a stack on my hill/walls with spearmen vs chariots. Things were fine till Shaka Dow'd. Lost everything within 15 turns. Lasted ubtil 270 A.D.

 

[Kev]

since its only the science slider which is going down wouldn't you then be able to keep a decent bpt, with scienists only?

This is a good point - making the Mids that much more a priority if you allow for scientists - great synergy with Sistine as well.

 

[madscientist]

This is a good point - making the Mids that much more a priority if you allow for scientists - great synergy with Sistine as well.

Unfortunately I already missed out on the Pyramids. Something about dedicating hammers to Military (Hello Shaka) and Settlers (Hello Will).

 

[Crusher1]

I considered this and purposedly avoided addressing it. I certainyl do not plan to avoid these three forever, but I definitely want CoL, Currency, and probably Philosophy before I turn the slider off. SO let's say Hayy will prudently pace them out.

Ok Mad, I am currently playing the game on Marathon but am getting further up the tech tree and need verification on the above. I can safely tech to Biology and Communism before I absolutely have to research Drama as I am going for a Space Race. So?

 

[madscientist]

Ok Mad, I am currently playing the game on Marathon but am getting further up the tech tree and need verification on the above. I can safely tech to Biology and Communism before I absolutely have to research Drama as I am going for a Space Race. So?

As with any RPC, it's about having fun.

That said, I would have teched the big three well before I got any prerequisites for those techs. Then again I never planning to do teh Space RAce deal.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

You space racist

 

[madscientist]

well I am playing the game out although I ran into one problem. I went brain dead and traded for alphabet! Once I realized the mistake I worldbuilt it out. However I did make a trade with it.

I thought of replaying the segment but prefer not to!

 

[Crusher1]

Just shy of 1000 AD.

Spoiler :

Ok, so I don't like the starting position so I move around until I find a better spot with all the food plains and stone, made even better by 2 forest growing in my bfc before I even start chopping. As I found out were Shaka and Willem were the obvious and best choice was to aggressively block land from both of them, which I did. Tech path was Mining, Masonry, BW, AH, Pottery, Writing, Hunting, Mathematics, Currency, CoL, CS, Asthetics, Literature, 2 turns of Calendar before I changed mind, Philosophy, Paper, Education, MC, Machinery, Engineering, Guilds, Gunpowder, Liberalism, Chemistry as free tech, finished calendar in 1 turn and then...............

Build order was worker, warrior, warrior, TGW in Thebes(1880), TGL in Memphis(1400), The Pyramids in Thebes (1300). I wan't to take the time to say I forgot how insanely abusive huts and tree chops are on marathon. From huts I ended up getting 1 scout, 2 warriors, Experience giving me a level 4 warrior!, 300+ in gold, a map, and Fishing as a free tech! Crazy! Chopping, even before I got Math really enabled a nice expand with all the Wonders I had built/chopped. Is it just me or do trees regrow many times faster on Marathon? I had so many trees growing back it was scary. Marathon abuse?

Moving on. I continued to REX and maintained a decent power rating to delay Shaka's inevitable attack. I kept good relations with everyone while abusing the TGL and Currency to enable a continuous REX. Shaka declared War on me around 750 AD with a small hit force which I killed, then took his city, sued for peace and then gifted him his city. Then Shaka, being the crack head he is declared war on me again as soon as the treaty was over, lol. The 2nd war followed the exact path of the first war, although I had some better screen shots for the 2nd war showing troops in my 2 of my cities vs his approaching units and nearest city.

So I decided to take Chemistry from Liberalism so I could get to SM and Biology very fast and simply clicked on Biology in the tech screen and continued playing - then, wouldn't you know it, I looked up and saw that I was 1 turn away from finishing Alphabet, and I was like WTH? I'm an idiot, lol. I had never payed any attention to the prerequisites for PP, lol. I had been laying down about 2 workshops in every city to help facilitate quick Theaters and colosseums so that they would be finished about the same time I had biology so I could push up my cultural slider and grow big cities to fuel more powerful research for my space race attempt . I wouldn't worry about production until very near the end right before I began part production - +4 workshops in SP would do the trick well enough.


Anyways, I retired seeing how I am not allowed to research Alphabet, lol! Very unfortunate because the game was moving along rather strongly.

 

[madscientist]

Happy Hatty

I alreayd mentioned the alphabet deal, but fear not. By the end we are still dedicated to heiroglyphics!

we pop our first GP which is a GA!

I SETTLED Him in that city!

Once Will teched alphabet, we started making trades

WOOPS!!!!!!! Sometimes it certainly can be hard remembering the RPC rules.

We also traded with Shaka

And then we heard the war trumpets!

That is just so wrong Shaka, you stop that and apologize!

Unfortunately this had little effect although better Will get's pummelled than us.

Meanwhile we got this random event to improve relations with Shaka

Which made up for us refusing to declare war on Willem.

Shaka came offering another trade

Techpth! went: drama/music/civil service/meditation/Literature. Yep we burned all the culture techs early!

We got the free GA for Music which we also settled!

Now Shaka only took one city from Willem

Which I am hoping flips to us.

we made another trade with the offending alphabet tech

Danged, wish I had remembered but not interested in restarting teh segment.

So we adopted HR and OR.

Deft flips to us pretty soon.

Which is nice since we were trying to settle that exact region earlier!

we finally teched

And shut the science slider down for the culture slider.

Arround this time I realized my error and worldbuilt alphabet back in

We popped another GA which we settled.

we managed a few more trades which may save our military butts later

So we have maces/crossbows/jumbos/cats. Yeah that's good enough!

We finished

And decided to save.

The continent

And closeup look at Willems internal region

Culture pressure already!

One final trade

And the cities

So there we are.

Shaka declared war twice on Willem but has left us alone for now.

So I plan to ride the culture slider and see if I can get pretty far along there until we meet the other continent!

 

[Crusher1]

Must be nice! My strategy ended in utter failure lol!

 

[I-imp]

Right now I am fairly certain that all shadow games have ended in failure.

 

[BarrageQueen]

Hmmm, although Hatty did secure the Sistine Chapel already, wouldn't it be more prudent for her to delay trading the Music tech to Willem for a bit longer? Now he can build Confucian Academies and Hindu Mandirs. It's a cultural battle with him afterall.

 

[NonPrayinMantis]

Which three cities are going to be your culture cities?

NPM

 

[Crusher1]

Right now I am fairly certain that all shadow games have ended in failure.

I don't see why. The map is awesome and easily allows the user to grab lots of land and power research and then power gold and using Rush buy from the Mids to buy all the needed cultural buildings. The only reason why my game failed is because a Space Race requires the Alphabet, which I'm ashamed to say I didn't know lol.

 

[Negator_UK]

Right now I am fairly certain that all shadow games have ended in failure

Mine certainly did although I did not think of going for a space win (not because I knew the alphabet problem, it just didn't occur to me - way out thinking dude ).

Spoiler :

I started out similar to Mad, but colonised the eastern side of the island rather than the southern side. Got 4 good culture/commerce cities, a good prod city (with HE) and a smaller joke city at the southern tip near the silver and fish.

Wonder wise, got the mids, SP, MoM, GL and Sistine, but narrowly missed Stonehenge. SP allowed me to go Free Religion, minimising religious friction. Unlike mads game, in mine, Shaka was buddhist and Willem Hindu and they were always fighting, and asking me to join in wars (didn't) and cancel trades (did sometimes) so good diplomacy was impossible.

Eventually Shaka vassalised willem and i changed to Shakas religion. he still kept dowing me though, but always attacked a well protected city so all he did was degrade cottages and pastures etc.

Meanwhile on the tech front I did Feudalism, halfway into to astronomy and Civil Service, but didn't do paper or Education. After I popped the last of the 3 techs I pulled down the slider, and stacked my cities for culture win, but it was going to take a while.

I traded optics/astro techs to shaka to get him out of muy hair and he duly went on overseas conquest. However he constantly asked me to sever trade with whoever he didn't like and I wound up annoying the germans. Eventually a group of galleons dropped of an invasion force of cavalry and Artillery near my capital (defended by axe/mace/longbow) and i gave up.

Could I have won ?? - maybe one trick I missed was to stay independant - In my prince days I do recall winning a game where I had been someones vassal.

But being shakas neighbour really screwed me on this game - the RPC rule keeps you from attacking/killing him, but if you don't he takes over the continent. Not a good neighbour if you want to be "Happy" .....

Still good fun and may try the map again after watching what everyone else does...

 

[madscientist]

Right now I am fairly certain that all shadow games have ended in failure.

And the main RPC

We lasted a good long time, but the devil came due eventually.

Last segment to come!